Socarides focused much of his career on the study of homosexuality, which he believed could be altered.[1] He helped found the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) in 1992[2] and worked extensively with the organization until his death.[3] He did not consider the underlying desires of homosexuality to be immoral, stating that "Once my patients have achieved an insight into these dynamics – and realized there is no moral fault involved in their longtime and mysterious need – they have moved rather quickly on the road to recovery."[citation needed]

As a 1995 New York Times profile put it, "Socarides offered the closest thing to hope that many gay people had in the 1960s: the prospect of a cure. Rather than brand them as immoral or regard them as criminal, Socarides told gay people that they suffered from an illness whose effects could be reversed."[4]

Much of Socarides' career was devoted to studying homosexuality. He has been grouped with Irving Bieber and Lionel Ovesey as the main representatives of the U.S. psychoanalytical current that has been active in promoting analytical methods to revert homosexuality.[7] Socarides postulated that homosexuality was a neurotic adaptation, and that it could be treated.He wrote that male homosexuality typically develops in the first two years of life, during the pre-Oedipal stage of the boy's personality formation. In his view, it is caused by a controlling mother who prevents her son from separating from her, and a weak or rejecting father who does not serve as a role model for his son or support his efforts to escape from the mother.[8][9]

Socarides was the father of five children: a son, Richard Socarides, from his first marriage; a daughter, also from his first marriage; two children from his second marriage; and one from his fourth marriage, with Claire Alford Socarides. Richard is openly gay and was Bill Clinton's Senior Advisor for Public Liaison for gay and lesbian issues.[10]

In 1995, Socarides published Homosexuality: A Freedom Too Far. He wrote in the introduction that "...I have written a book that brings everything together in a familiar, question-and-answer format. In this I had a model, Galileo's Dialogue on the World's Great Systems." Socarides warned his readers that, "...some of my statements may come across as shocking, or crude, or too graphic – even pornographic. I can only say that these words derive from the subject matter itself; they are not meant to titillate, or amuse, or promote prejudice or bias."

In the fourth chapter, "Origins", Socarides discussed the development of homosexuality. He criticized Simon LeVay's scientific research on the hypothalamus on several grounds, including the lack of proof of whether the size of INAH3 was the cause of homosexuality or the reverse, the fact that LeVay could not rule out the possibility that AIDS had affected the size of INAH3, the fact that the study had not been duplicated, and the possibility that INAH3 did not exist. Socarides denounced attempts to change homosexuality through lobotomy and aversion therapy as "quackeries", adding that "Doctors who tried them were only treating symptoms. They didn't get to the root cause."[11] Socarides also suggested that the serial killer and cannibalJeffrey Dahmer was an extreme example of a common homosexual type, writing "Every homosexual who wants to incorporate the body of his male lover is utilizing the same mental mechanism: incorporation. Most homosexuals are content to do this symbolically. Dahmer was psychotic; he took his homosexual disorder beyond the limits."

In the sixth chapter, "Psychiatry", Socarides wrote that the removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric AssociationsDSM-II was a mistake, and blamed it for the AIDS epidemic. Socarides compared the American gay community to confused children and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to their parents. He criticized Dr. Robert Spitzer, writing that Ronald Bayer's book Homosexuality and American Psychiatry revealed him as, "...someone who crosses far over the line, from science to open advocacy of a political position. Bayer tells us that Spitzer had never even published a paper on homosexuality." Socarides claimed that the vote for the removal of homosexuality from the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, won by a 65% majority rule, was heavily influenced by a letter sent by the National Gay Task Force to the 18,000 APA members asking them to support its removal.[citation needed]